The best honey in the world will be elected in Ukraine this October

Today honey festivals and shows play an important role in the beekeeping culture of different countries. Their main goal is to improve the quality standards of honey and other bee products offered to consumers in the market and to raise awareness in the general public about the important role of bees in everyday life. The world’s foremost contest program of this kind – World Beekeeping Awards (WBA) will be held within the 43-rd International Apimondia Congress in Kyiv this September for the fifth time already. The contest has been first introduced as the World Honey Show at the 39th Apimondia Congress in Dublin in 2005.

World Beekeeping Awards

World Beekeeping Awards is an international competition organized exclusively for presenting bee products of the highest quality, as well as for various innovations, art, and hobby related to beekeeping. The goal set by the organizers is quite ambitious – to set the universal international standard of quality in beekeeping.

The Organizing Committee of the 43rd Apimondia International Apicultural Congress invites all beekeepers, experts in the field of beekeeping, beekeeping enthusiasts, and all others interested in the subject to participate in one of the three categories:

1. Commercial Classes are organized for producers of bee products from around the world who are engaged in the honey business. The entries include products already on the market, labeled and accompanied by quality and safety certificate from an international laboratory. Only the winners of the commercial classes are eligible to compete for one of the four Grand Prizes. The Honey Silver Bowl for World’s Best Honey has been endowed by Carl and Virginia Webb – whose honey has won highest Apimondia medals many times. The Oak Shield for the World’s Best Beekeeping Display is sponsored by Sodruzhestvo – Ukraine’s strongest honey exporter and General Sponsor of the 43rd Apimondia Congress. All medal winners in the Commercial Classes category will be granted full rights to use the Apimondia medal on the label of their products.
2. Classes for individuals are designed especially for those for whom beekeeping is a fascinating, occasionally profitable hobby, or an exciting small business. This category includes honey, beeswax and beekeeping display classes. All exhibits must be genuine products from the participant’s own apiary and harvested during the last calendar year. Requirements for the beekeeping products for individual classes are the following: absence of labels or seals, adequate filling of containers with honey, uniformity of exhibits in one category, purity and transparency of the product, absence of contamination in the product, and clean packaging.
3. The traditional Apimondia Contests for experts and enthusiasts in beekeeping is another part of the program. It is an exceptional opportunity to present at the world highest level results of your work on beekeeping-related topic, be it a book, an invention, a magazine, a website or a documentary. Hobbyists are welcome to present beekeeping collections, photographs and different artwork.

Small changes can make a product look better.

In Kyiv for the first time a new Under 18 category designed exclusively for children is introduced. The youngest beekeepers are submitting their paintings and decorative exhibits to compete for the Apimondia medals. Participation in them is free.

All ApiEXPO-2013 stands are automatically participating in stands contest.

This year a great effort is put to get universal recognition of the World Beekeeping Awards results. The rules and regulation of the contest program have been harmonized to reflect different cultural approaches to the quality of bee products in different parts of the world. The Judges brigade is comprised of 36 leading experts, representing over 20 countries and all the continents. The Judges’ referee is Margaret Davies of the UK’s National Honey Show, who has over 20 years of experience in judging different bee products.

The registration deadline for the World Beekeeping Awards is September 1, 2013. Applications received after this date may be accepted until September 15 provided the late registration fee is paid. This, however, does not apply to the classes Photography, Multimedia, and Printed Materials, which are not accepted after September 1.

Information about the contest and its results will be given to each journalist who attends the 43rd Apimondia International Congress. Interviews and photographs of each Grand Prix winner will be published on the official website www.apimondia2013.com.ua and dispatched in a separate press release to all media partners of the Apimondia. The WBA’s 150 winners who will receive Apimondia medals and diplomas, while four best-of-the-best will be receiving trophies from the hands of Apimondia President, during the Congress closing ceremony.

It doesn’t matter if you swing honey or brew mead, collect stamps or invent the nano-TV-sets for bees. Your product is the world’s best – isn’t it? So why not get an official confirmation!